Clothing choices for modern women span an array of garments, in many different styles. Among available garments are blouses, tank tops, T-shirts, camisoles, and other tops, which afford various styles of necklines. These choices enable women to achieve various “looks” in their attire. Typically, for example, female attire may include a blouse. The blouse may have a button front or may be a V-neck blouse where the garment does not have buttons. In either instance, a certain amount of cleavage may show unless in some cases an undergarment is worn, such as a camisole which conceals the cleavage and very likely in many instances also conceals the woman's brassiere. In some circumstances a particular amount of cleavage may be appropriate to show, while in other circumstances more or less cleavage may generally be appropriate.
For example, nowadays many women have employment outside the home. They may have professional jobs or other positions where standards of dress require a particular level of modesty or workplace decorum. For this reason, a woman may wear a camisole or other type of garment under a blouse to help conceal the woman's cleavage and/or brassiere. In this way, standards of workplace decorum as to professional dress can be met.
After work, however, a woman may decide that the professional dress appropriate for work can impede recreational activities, or may not be appropriate when going out with friends, or going out to, for example, a nightclub. In this case, it may be necessary to change one's clothes, to take off one's blouse and remove the camisole, for example, or even to change one's blouse entirely. It can be inconvenient, however, to need to change clothing when one goes from a workplace environment to a recreational environment or an entertainment venue after work, for example, where different levels of cleavage exposure may be appropriate. A couple of approaches to addressing the need to change clothing have been devised.
A brassiere which provides cleavage coverage is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,935,921, “Prosthetic Brassiere,” issued Aug. 30, 2005 to Kimberly Eudenbach and Sandra L. Busook. This patent discloses a prosthetic brassiere suitable for use by mastectomy patients, including brassiere cups that are adapted to hold prosthetic breasts. The prosthetic brassiere of Eudenbach and Busook also includes a privacy panel that attaches to the prosthetic brassiere to conceal the prosthetic breast and/or scars from surgery. Because the brassiere cups are adapted to hold prosthetic breasts, each includes material to define a pocket into which a prosthetic breast may be inserted. The privacy panel attaches to upper portions of the prosthetic brassiere cups.
Another approach for providing cleavage coverage is described by Patricia A. Calimari and Karla A. Kennedy, in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0281585, “Partial Undergarment And Method For Covering A Woman's Exposed Cleavage,” published Dec. 6, 2007. In this approach, a partial undergarment for covering a woman's exposed cleavage is provided. The partial undergarment attaches to the straps of the woman's brassiere, with another portion of the partial undergarment wrapped around the brassiere itself. The partial undergarment does not provide for different levels of cleavage coverage, and may look bulky under the wearer's clothing due to its means of attachment. In addition, there may be a need to remove an outer garment in order to be able to remove the partial undergarment.
Neither of the two prior art approaches are completely satisfactory. In one case, the approach is directed to wearers of prosthetic breasts, and moreover lacks a secure bottom fastening that a wearer of a lightweight brassiere may desire. In the other case, the method of attachment may be cumbersome and take time to arrange for proper cleavage coverage.